Southend and Benfleet 1s vs. Upminster 2s

A home game saw Southend and Benfleet 1s face Upminster 2s. The whistle had barely sounded when S&B caught the young away team napping as a few quick passes allowed Adele Cole to leap onto the scoreboard within the first minute of the game! Upminster came back strong though and defended any further S&B attacks until they were able to mount a quick paced attack of their own and managed to level the score not ten minutes later telling S&B that Upminster weren’t out of this game by any stretch of the imagination. Some frantic and scrappy tackles from both sides kept the umpires whistles blowing and broke play up for much of the second half. But some great teamwork from Rachel Jeffrey and Adele Cole on the left wing stopped Upminster attacks dead in their tracks whilst allowing S&B launched a few of their own. However, S&B were unable to find that second goal before half time, even with several short corners being gifted to them by unfortunate mistakes being made by the young away team.

The second half commenced and S&B seemed to regroup as they pressured the away sides defence. It was a long time coming but Kirsty Edmunds managed to snake her through one tackle after another to go one on one with the goalie to literally poke the ball out of the goalie’s hands into the goal. Shortly after this, she found herself slipping the ball neatly passed the goalie to make the score 3-1. Upminster seemed desperate as they pushed forward at the restart after S&Bs third goal but some great fending off from captain Nicola Bryant being backed up beautifully by Nina Dabbs meant that their efforts were all in vain as their attacks were cut short. S&B knew they couldn’t let their guard down as Upminster proved in the first half that they were not to be underestimated, with their quick pace they were hard to keep up with on the breaks but with the great communication that S&B display week in and week out everyone was marking their players tightly and Upminster never managed to get a second goal. Some great passes from S&B managed to find Lora Sharples deep in the away teams half before she bagged herself a goal making the score 4-1 to S&B at full time with player of the match being awarded to Adele Cole for her integral role in many of the successful plays of the game.

Photo: man of the match Adele Cole.